July 25, 2025 • 36 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (07/25) - Michael Monks comes on the show to talk about a new interim head of LAHSA being appointed. LAHSA has been such a failure. Sue Pascoe comes on the show to talk about where the money went from the Fire Aid concert to benefit Palisades and Eaton Fire victims. Moose meat was the cause of a plane crash in Alaska.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobelt
podcast on the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to the show. We're
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(00:21):
always tell you to follow us on social media at
John Cobelt Radio. We are only three followers away from
hitting thirty thousand. Three of you. That's all we need.
So three of you do something and then we'll hit
thirty thousand. And it makes Eric really happy. I don't
know why, but you know, everybody has to live for something. Now.
(00:42):
Michael Munks, who is KFI News. He covered today the
installation of the new chief executive of the disastrous, failing
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The woman who ran the
place is out. She's resigned under a lot of pressure,
(01:04):
and the new person is named Jita git O'Neil. Gita O'Neill,
who has been an assistant LA City Attorney. Well, so,
there was a whole committee of clowns that voted today.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I gotta tell you, the way you're characterizing the organization
is is not how I heard it describe itself earlier
this morning when I was at this board meeting. You know,
the LA Homeless Services Authority LASA. They have a board
that is governed by appointees from the city and the county.
This board meets today and it was incidentally the last
day for outgoing CEO of Alicia Adams Kellum and the
(01:43):
approved first day for the woman you just mentioned, Git O'Neil,
whill be coming from City Hall to take over this
on a twelve month interim basis. Just to get the
main headline out, I know that you've been critical of
Alicia Adams Kellum's salary of two one hundred and thirty
thousand dollars to lead this organization. O'Neil is on a
(02:03):
monthly basis nearly thirty one thousand dollars per month, so
she will make less than Callum, but her salary will
be about three hundred and seventy dollars.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Three hundred and seventy and Adams Callum made thirty four
to thirty. It's not that much of a savings there
not that much of a savings.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
In fact, as Velicia Adams Kellum, who attended this meeting
as her final meeting, gave her final remark, she was
basically saying that LASA is a better organization now than
before she arrived.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
We addressed audit findings directly, We strengthened our rehousing efforts
and took on tough shoos with courage and clarity. In
doing so, we've helped LASSA become more agile, more transparent,
what does that mean? And responsive? Real lasting change takes time,
(02:56):
especially when confronting issues that have persisted for decades.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Okay, but I'm incredibly dear.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Hows of what we've accomplished at LASA and for the
momentum the agency continues to build.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
The reason I wanted you to hear that in its
entire Dame, Oh, I'm just glad it is because she
mentioned some things that we've talked about a lot on
the audits that have found the misappropriation or the misaccounting
of about two billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Have they ever found an accounting for the two billion dollars? Yet?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
There's no good documentation for a lot of money that
went through LASA to those subcontracting homeless organizations.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Do you know what kind of what an enormous number?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
That is two billions a huge And it's not a
number that we made up in the press. It's not
a number that an investigative reporter dug up. This was
an audit ordered by federal judge right and a separate
audit ordered by the county and the city.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
They found similar problems. And she's never explained where the
money went, if it did any good, right, and she
I mean, they never found it, So what she said
there was never never said, I'm sorry, I lost track
of all this. She says.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We addressed it head on, and I tell you this
is why I told you before we went on air.
This was such a strange meeting to observe because the
way loss that talks about itself, including the board members,
which includes La Mayor Karen Bass, it's completely different than
I think the actual conversation that's taking place outside.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'm trying to imagine, you know, if there was like
like I don't know, when there's like two hundred dollars
missing in our checking account, my wife wants an all
day investigation, yeah, to know, like, well, who took it?
Out of the account and what did you spend it on? Right,
That's how she deals with the kids. And I'm thinking
two billion dollars and it seems no one is interested. No,
(04:49):
the judge is certainly interested. No, the judge is no.
Here's what came up. Because you're gonna hear I call
this cobalt kibble. As I was listening to this meeting,
I knew that there were sound bites that I needed
to cut just.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
For you to listen to. But I know that your
audience will enjoy as well. Mayer Bass is on this board.
Keep in mind they have a close relationship. She and
Felicia Adams Kellum. She credits Adams Kellum as the architect
of the Inside Safe program. And what the mayor said
today was that basically the expectations for Kellum were too high.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
You were expected to have a magic wand you were
expected to solve a problem that has been around for
four decades that I certainly recall, and you didn't do that.
You didn't do that in a couple of years, and
so the attacks began.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So she was attacked unfairly. Basically, this problem has not
been around at this level for four decades. That's a
load of crap, and what the mayor going on twenty
seventeen it got exactly. I don't think we discussed homelessness
at all t twenty seventeen, and then we did a
couple of on site shows. It was that year. That
was after a few years of Garcetti and his incompetence
(05:58):
in mismanagement.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
We talked just I think last week when the new
homeless numbers came out last Monday, that yeah, there were
fifty eight thousand documented homeless people in La County and
that exploded in twenty twenty three all the way to
seventy five thousand, and it's now starting to trickle down
a little bit. That's how they're able to say our
policies are working gets.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Because they're dying. It matches the number of people who
die every year on the street.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Mayor Bass says that what really hurt adams Kellum was
an ideological battle about how homelessness should be addressed.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
I think that it was unfortunate because I think one
of the underlying issues that you had to face that
you got caught up in is there's an ideological battle
about how to solve homelessness. There is a status quo
that has been going about homelessness for a number of years,
and you came in and you started to disrupt the system,
(06:50):
and there were a lot of people that were not
happy about that disruption.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
What is she talking about?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Disruption is one of those buzzwords that are often used
in like startups and entrepreneurs, and our product is disrupting
the industry. It doesn't really mean anything.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Usually smart issues. Then you said it.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
But speaking of that, speaking of that, because I got
these two, I got two more from Mayerbass talking about
Flicia Adams Kellum.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She says that Kellum was mischaracterized.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
And I feel that you were targeted and charged with
all sorts of things that later came out to be
absolutely untrue. But once that genie is out of the bottle,
nobody goes and puts it back, and it harmed your reputation.
And unfortunately, that is what happens to leaders a lot
(07:38):
of times when they choose to be disruptive of a system.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So I think what she means there, go ahead, Well,
there's the feelings of the organization that are pretty well documented. Yeah,
homelessness has gone up primarily over the past five or
six years. Yeah, starting to drop a little bit. Based
on the numbers from thisization, they significantly high tye seconds
we higher. But there was also that instance of a
(08:04):
two million dollar contract awarded to an agency operated by
Licia Adams Kellum's husband. And whether she had a knee
involvement in signing off on that.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, because she denied that she signed off on it
until they found her signature on the contracts.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yes, And so I think that is what the mayor
must have been talking about there. And now to get
to us guys in the media, this is what the
mayor says, You have press that have.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
No interest in reporting accurately and talking about what is
actually going on. And so those press that maligned you
unfortunately inappropriately, are not going to do a headline correcting
what was wrong.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So that was basically the theme of this board, meaning,
as they said, goodbye, an organization, some weird cult that
has lost that has not properly accounted for us the
way to phrase it, not properly accounted for billions, uh huh,
that has barely scratched the surface on eliminating street homelessness
in Los Angeles in Los Angeles County. Yeah, and an
organization that has now lost its co governance. The county
(09:05):
Board of Supervisors has left the organization and taken hundreds
of millions of dollars with it.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Why did the county pull out entirely and all their money?
If Adams Callum was doing such a bang up job.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
That's what shocked me about this meeting today is that
there was no apology. There was no there was no
recognition of any of the shortcomings. That was we are
doing a good job. We're just not getting credit for it.
That's insanity. And the mayor so there really is like
some weird cult. The mayor basically said to Adam's Callum, like,
(09:37):
this has been a hard job for you. You've taken
a lot of hits and it's going to be hard
for you in the future because you were brave enough
to take this role.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And now your reputation has probably been harmed. Uh, yeah,
it should be shattered. She shouldn't get a job in
government for the rest of her life. She has to
explain where the two billion went. So is Karen Bass.
Since Karen Bass is acting like her a vouching for
her character and integrity, Bass has got explain this. It's
under her watch. She's part of the this this commission.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Here, the mayor says that she and Wendy Gruhle, who
used to be the city controller and ran for mayor
and is was until today the chair of this board.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
They switched that governance around. It wasn't ntil today the
chair of this loss of board.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Bass and Gruel actually went to war over Velish adams
Kellum because Bass wanted Velisha Adams Kellms to stay at
city Hall and Grule really wanted her to take over
the position at LASSA. And they talked about that today,
about how how talented she is and how coveted she
was at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Did anybody push back, No one, nobody. No, it was
unanimous praise, unanimous praise for somebody who oversaw two billion
dollars evaporating into thin air and nobody can explain it,
and nobody's even trying to. Nobody's looking for the money,
and the federal investigation continues. That's astounding. Yeah, the federal
(10:54):
investigation from judging the court, there's there's there's a lawsuit
that the court is overseeing and that I should I don't, No,
I don't want to see investigation. But the court is
certainly monitoring, right, I mean, it seems like there ought
to be a federal investigation. And remember, don't.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Forget that when Bill Saley took over his US attorney
he did start a little organization.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
He said, if there's any federal money involved in the organization,
we haven't.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Heard anything from now that you, but I'm sure he's
not resting on his laurels. All right, very good, You
got me off upset. I'm going to sage later at
the place if you want to come over here. You know,
I want to see you ver running around with your shage.
She's going to sage tonight too, I told her to.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah, it's a full moon.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yes, it's a new mode, a new moon.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
Oh, a new mood. Sorry, that's okay, okay, thank you
for clarifying.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Are you going to run around naked out in the fielding?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
There's some words of positivity and cleaning out the bad energy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You could use it in Brentwood. I got you know something,
if if Eric, if you start smudging and waving burning
stage in the air, that I'm done here. Not a chance.
That's I'm leaving the country.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We just had Michael Monks on. He had covered a
press event today. I guess reporters weren't allowed to say anything.
This was the uh well, actually this was the loss
of commission voting seven to one to put in a
new temporary chief Executive of LASA, the LA Homeless Services Authority,
(12:30):
Jita O'Neil. This replaces the incredibly overwhelmingly and competent Valicia
Adams Kellen. And rather than go through a long winded indictment,
there's only one thing you need to know. Federal Judge
David Carter asked an accounting firm to do an audit
(12:54):
of where the money went, and they can't account for
two billion dollars. Two billion, Now, that is an astonishing
amount of money, really truly is. And it's just shrugged
off like, oh well, hey, Valicia Adams Kellum never took
(13:17):
any responsibility, never even said yeah, it disappeared, and I
was in charge, and I don't know where it is
and I don't know if it did any good but
my fault. I mean, how many employees had to watch
that money pass through their hands? How many employees now
it could be buried in Karen Bass's backyard. For all
(13:38):
we know, it could be buried in Valicia adams kellum backyard.
We don't know where it is. Nobody wrote down all
the checks, all the direct deposits. There aren't receipts for anything.
What the hell? That is absolutely, positively the most outrageous thing.
(14:03):
And then it then and then Bass starts complaining about
the media, that the media is throwing out phony stories
and tarnishing the reputation of Valici Adams Kellen. It is
the opposite. The media never pressed hard enough on where
the money went. We have been covering this story now
(14:24):
for eight years. It got really bad around twenty seventeen
when Garcetti was the mayor. He was the original destructive loser.
And twenty seventeen was an important year because that's when
it got so bad. They put up two propositions on
the ballot. One was a county proposition, one was a
city proposition. It was and hhh, and that was to
(14:46):
raise billions of dollars. And that those billions of dollars
have added up over the last eight years and nothing's
gotten better. And then the big whopper that Bass told,
the big whopper she spoke to Valisia Adams Callum directly
saying that you were asked to wave a magic wand
(15:07):
to solve a problem that's been going on for decades. No,
I have the numbers here. All you have to do.
There's something called la almanac dot com and it has
a list of the homeless population counts in Los Angeles
County done by LASA. This is their numbers for the
last twenty years. I don't think they even were counting
(15:32):
homeless people before two thousand and five. Let me take
you back to as recently as twenty eleven. Do you
know how many homeless people there were in the city
of Los Angeles about on the streets? On the streets
in the city, thirteen thousand, thirteen thousand. It's doubled since then.
(15:57):
It's about twenty six thousand. In the county. It was again,
this is twenty eleven. It was twenty eight thousand, it
is now forty seven thousand. These are street people. I'm
(16:20):
not going to get into the sheltered. That's a different category.
But I'm talking about the people that terrify us the most.
Forty seven thousand people in the county, twenty six thousand
in the city, and the numbers in twenty eleven or
twenty eight thousand in the county and thirteen thousand in
the city. So these are huge increases, big time increases.
(16:48):
And because if you believe they're numbers, it's down slightly
from twenty twenty four or twenty twenty three, it's still
oh much much higher than it used to be, much higher.
In fact, it's higher than it was in twenty nineteen.
(17:12):
In all categories. It's higher than it was just six
years ago. And I cannot stand. I cannot stand how
the media every headline, oh, just down, homelessness down, by
the way, Why would you trust an organization that lost
two billion dollars unaccounted for? Why would you trust them
(17:33):
when they do an a do account of homeless people?
Why would you assume that the number is accurate at
some point? Isn't LASA without any credibility at all about anything?
I mean, certainly the county supervisors thought so, because they
pulled out in the organization. Karen Pass is the last
defender of a hopelessly corrupt, hopelessly incompetent, overwhelmed agency run
(18:00):
by an absolute loser of a woman, Valicia Adams Kellum,
who had the nerve to give two million dollars to
her husband's nonprofit, and then deny she did it until
a news organization found the contract with her signature on it,
and then she still denied that she did it, claiming, well,
I must have not been looking when I signed that.
I guess somebody pushed that in front of me. It's like,
(18:21):
get out. Now, here's a plane ticket, a bus ticket.
Let's put her on SpaceX and shoot her out of
orbit out. I'm honest to god, somebody, somebody on the
news tonight. Somebody just go back, go back fifteen years,
(18:42):
go look at the number twenty eleven county city sheltered, unsheltered.
You look at those numbers, and you tell me how
Valicia Adams, Kellen Kellum, and Karen Bass can claim credit
for anything. And the lead story ought to be still
after misappropriating, lose track of wasting, stealing, you choose two
(19:05):
billion dollars. Now, LASA has a new executives stand cannot
stand the way the media covers things. With a few exceptions,
but for the most part, it is atrocious here, absolutely
atrocious that that's our money being stolen. They're not helping anybody.
He's just got all these people dying in the streets,
(19:26):
and yes, almost all of them are drug addicts and
mental patients, which is a whole nother thing we're gonna
get to you later in the show, because Trumps issued
an executive order about all the drug addicts and the
mental patients and he wants them all off the street
in all cities and in all states. All right, when
we come back, as long as we're on the nonprofits,
we're gonna talk to Sue Pasco. She's with a news
(19:47):
organization called Circling the News out of the Palisades, And
we'll explain all the details when we come back. But
it's it's one hundred million dollars that was donated in
that for that fire aid concert. Money is supposed to
go to Alta, Dina and Palisades fire victims and homeowners.
Well where did the money go? Well, Sue Pasco's trying
to figure it out. We'll have her on next.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
You're listening to John Cobbel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Or on every day one until four o'clock, as you know,
and then every day after four o'clock you got a podcast.
John Cobelt Show on demand, so if you miss anything
during the program, you can catch up later on the podcast.
Everything is brought to you on the iHeartRadio app. Now,
one of the big stories that's been bubbling for a
(20:34):
little while is the money that was raised from the
Fire Aid concert. And the fire Aid concert was for
the victims of the Altaden and Palisades fire, and a
lot of people thought that the money was going to
go directly to the victims. Well, instead it went to
(20:56):
a large number of nonprofits. Now and the whole iHeart
chain promoted the broadcast of the concert. We promoted the
event just up front. We did not collect any of
the money or distribute any of the money. We were
just a venue for publicizing the concert, and that was
(21:17):
as far as our involvement goes. But now you have
a Congressman, Kevin Kylie up in Northern California, who's been
on our show many times, wants to know where the
funds went, how did they get distributed, who did it
go to. One of the journalists who've been on top
of this story has been Sue Pasco, one time a
(21:39):
journalist on the West Side out of the Palisades, and
she's got a website called circling the news, and we're
going to talk to Sue because she'll have more detail
than almost anybody as to what happened. Sue Pasco, are
you there.
Speaker 7 (21:54):
I am. Thank you for having me and helping to
spread the word about what I think is just a
traves state.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
How much money total was raised by the fire aid concerts.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Supposedly more than one hundred million, and we don't even
know if it's more than that, because one would assume
that they put it in an account someplace and it's
drying interest. But the Fire Aid Committee, I guess that's
the best way to put them, has doled out about
seventy five million so far, which means there's only about
twenty five million left. And the most interesting thing, this
(22:30):
was marketed for victims now survivors of the fire, and
it hasn't gone to gone to individuals. It's gone to nonprofits.
And I didn't realize that until a reader sent in
a query in may Or. I guess it was in April,
he said. The query in he said, how do I
apply for those fire aid funds? I thought, you know,
(22:51):
that's a really good question. So I reached out to
the Annenberg because they're the ones overseeing supposedly, who's getting
the Grantsburg data? Yes, and no one got back to me.
So I called, I emailed, and finally someone got back
to me and said, well, maybe who you should talk
(23:11):
to is our media spokesperson, Chris Wallace. So then I
spoke to Chris. But after basically, none of the money
is going to individuals, it's going to nonprofits. And they
told me I could see the nonprofits online, which I
went to the fire Aid website and started looking at
the nonprofits and so one of the first I saw
(23:34):
was Saint Joseph the People's Concern. I'm actually helped with
the Homeless task Force in the Palisades, So I thought,
why are these they're basically homeless task Force. Why is
money going to help the people on the transient basically?
And then I started looking at the other nonprofits that
(23:54):
were listed, like LA's Home for Native People Pathways LA,
which is based in downtown and works to make sure
that children are most vulnerable communities have access to high
quality and affordable childcare services, or Homegrown, whose mission is
to build a more inclusive childcare system that values and
supports home based childcare. I really didn't know how any
(24:17):
of this supported.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Fuire victims in the Palisades and Altadena, correct.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
But I thought, well, you know what, maybe this is
really helping the Altadena area. So I went back to
the Edinburgh Committee and I sort of said, can you
send me a list of the nonprofits that have been
helped in Pacific Palisades from this? And I got a
shortlist of about three that supposedly were helping fire victims
(24:50):
in the Palisades. But I started talking to people in
the Palisades and no one had actually seen individual support.
And the need is enormous because most people don't realize
insurance is not paying. There's a huge gap between one
insurance will pay to rebuild at what it costs, and
(25:12):
people don't have the money to rebuild. So any kind
of money like this would be very helpful.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, I mean yeah. There were a lot of heavy
hitters involved in this. The La Clippers owner Steve Balmer,
you had the Annenberg Foundation, which is an enormous foundation
here in LA and then you had the stars involved.
It was at the Kia Forum, the Intuit Dome, Billie Eilish,
Rod Stewart, Lady Gaga Sting, Stevie Wonder, Nirvana, Stevie Nicks
a huge success, one hundred million raised, and then all
(25:43):
the information about what happened went dead and people started saying, well,
where did the money go? And I didn't get the money,
and so it goes to these nonprofits. According to your research,
do the nonprofits explain where the money went after they
got funded? Do they have a list of homeowners residents
(26:05):
who got some kind of grant?
Speaker 7 (26:09):
You think? Would you? No, it's confidentiality. We can't tell
you the person that may have gotten the money. To me,
now this becomes a much I'm angry at the nonprofits
for taking the money, and some of them really are sketch.
I'm not going to say which ones I think are sketched,
but there are some that are really sketched, and some
that just got their nonprofit by going through other nonprofits
(26:31):
and don't even have their own nonprofit number and got money,
which is a whole other story. But who came up
with the system. I think whoever is on top needs
to be called out, and you would like to know
who's on top. But I've asked, and I've been told,
we're not going going to go into that, right now
now on top, because making the decision that nonprofit should
(26:56):
get the money.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Would that be somebody idea? Would it be somebody at
the Aninberg Foundation. I mean they must have a CEO.
Speaker 7 (27:04):
Well, it's supposed that the Annenberg is just a sort
of a see through pass through. Yeah, past here, that's
what it is. No, someone had to be responsible for
setting this up, for saying we need a committee to
decide on which nonprofits get it. And from what I
can tell, if you have a nonprofit and he would
(27:25):
set evacuation. They were throwing out money like a drunken
sailor and a port. I mean they were just going
crazy throwing the money out. So who came up with
this scheme? And why are they not being held accountable
for giving all this money to nonprofits? I almost don't
fault the nonprofits, is whoever came up with the system.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Congressman Kevin kylie I mentioned he's asking the Attorney General,
Pam Bondi, to investigate this. He said on X we've
learned that of the one hundred million raised, none actually
went to LA fire victims, went to nonprofits, many that
had nothing to do with fire relief. I've asked Attorney
(28:05):
General BONDI to open an investigation. I mean, since he
has gone public with this threat, does anybody come forward
and say, okay, okay, calm down, calm down, We're going
to explain here where the money went.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
No. No, oh, And you might like this because our
governor Newsom has I looked up how Volunteers, which is
actually a nonprofit out of the state governor's office, and
they got fire aid funds. And once that was reported,
Spencer Pratt actually did it on a little Instagram thing
about how Heal Volunteers, a California governor nonprofit got it.
(28:45):
It was taken off the website. So the question becomes,
did they take it off? Did they give the money back?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
This is going to require a lot of investigation. Are
the are other news outlets interested in this story?
Speaker 7 (29:04):
I will say that I have to give a huge
shout out to Marla Tellez on Fox because she had
me on and it sort of opened it up for
a lot of people to say, what's going on here?
She had the courage to put me on. Not a
lot of media sources were that interested in I reached
out to some, and I don't know why. They weren't
interested in where the money was going.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
All right, Well, if you find out more more details,
something concrete, you can come on with us.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
Okay, I would be happy to because the victims deserve
the money.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, that's what was promised. And you know, I am
in general highly suspicious of the entire nonprofit industry based
on a lot of news that we've been covered over
the last few years. Whether it's homelessness or climate change.
There are a lot of people who end up well,
(30:01):
they're parasites. And it wouldn't surprise me most of.
Speaker 7 (30:05):
The executives are getting six figure salaries. This is really
I found that really interesting.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, no, that's true. All right. Sus Pasco from Circlingthnews
dot com. Thank you for coming on with us.
Speaker 7 (30:17):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
All right. More coming up John Cobelt Show caf I
Am six forty.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Forty John Cobelt Show, and the Moistline is going to
be played this afternoon at three o'clock. So you're too
late for today's Moistline. However, you can call in for
next week eight seven seven Moist eighty six. You can
call in now for next week eight seven seven Moist
eighty six or the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.
(30:51):
Right after two o'clock. In Debra's News, We're gonna have
Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal Analyst. You may have heard
Gallaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime friend. They led her out
of jail to talk to the Deputy Attorney General Todd
Blanche and the whole world is speculating, is she spilling
(31:13):
lots of dirty secrets on Epstein and Epstein's clients in
exchange for maybe getting her sentenced reduced or eliminated. They
can do that separately. The Supreme Court maybe hearing part
of Glene Maxwell's case because her lawyers claim the conviction
(31:34):
itself was invalid because the federal prosecutors had made a
non prosecution agreement with Epstein all the way back to
two thousand and seven when he was first charged and
jailed for his shedanigans. All the details we'll talk about
with the Royal Oaks coming up in just a few minutes.
(31:58):
Do you remember in Alaska a couple years ago there
was a single engine plane crashed shortly after takeoff in
the mountains. Yes, I remember that. Only the pilot was
on board and he died. His name's Eugene Peltola. He
was the husband of a former Congresswoman Mary Peltola. They
(32:21):
have released all the details on why the plane crashed.
It was overloaded with moose meat and it had antlers
that they that they connected to the right wing and
(32:42):
that provided too much drag on the plane. They attached
the antlers to the wing. The overweight airplane and the
added drag and lateral weight imbalance caused by the antlers
resulted in the plane having insufficient power. So I know
you're you're very worried about the plane crashes. Make sure
(33:05):
you know how much moose meats aboard. So okay, excuse me, sir,
I have a question for you. Did you weigh your
moose meat. Peltola had taken a group of hunters and
their equipment from to an airstrip and I one day
(33:25):
before the crash, they bagged a moose. So they murdered
a moose and they wanted Peltola to transport the meat
in his plane. They weren't on board the plane. It's like, hey,
could you take the meat back? Home. He did not
weigh the moose meat, and so the plane was carrying
(33:47):
one hundred and fifteen more pounds of cargo, then was
allowed on takeoff, also carrying antlers on the wing. This
is commonplace in Alaska, but it requires formal approval from
the FAA. They did not get that. I guess you
have to do some kind of measurement on that as well.
(34:08):
Oh my god, I have Okay, this is just well.
Plus you have to feel bad for the moose. Well,
he gets chopped up into slabs of me he brings
down a plane right, only you would find Hey, this
made the New York Times today. I mean, it's funny.
(34:30):
Oh it's funny. We got it. We got a dead man.
We have a dead moose. But you're laughing. You have
been corrupted. I have been corrupted yet. And now his wife,
the former congresswoman, is filing a lawsuit that he was
(34:52):
forced to fly too many hours with too little rest,
to fly under dangerous conditions and had to carry the
moose antwich on. Oh yes, at the headlines on the
headline playing in Alaska crash overloaded with moose meat and antlers. Okay,
(35:12):
when we come back, Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal analyst,
and he's going to explain. Uh, well, we'll ask him
about what today's rucus was about. Because Glene Maxwell met
with Todd Blanche. Is there anything that she could say
at this point that would reduce her sentence? And why
would anybody believe her? She's not exactly the most credible
(35:36):
woman in the world. Also, there's a case which is
headed to the Supreme Court regarding her conviction because the
prosecutors had agreed back in two thousand and seven with
Epstein that they would No. I guess nobody was supposed
to be prosecuted after seven I don't know. Well, that's
why Royal Oaks is coming out, because you're.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Not going to ask him about antlers and moose meat
though no, I thought that's what you were going to No,
because maybe you get a better reaction from him than me.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
We're going to talk with the Royal Oaks next. Deborah
Marquez News Live in the CAFI twenty four hour Newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
I am six forty. You're listening to the John Cobelt
podcast on the iHeartRadio app. Welcome to the show. We're
on every day from one until four o'clock and every day.
As soon as the show's over, you may say I
missed it. I was doing something stupid like working. Well
that's what the podcast is for John Cobelt's show on
demand and then you could hear whatever you missed. We
(00:21):
always tell you to follow us on social media at
John Cobelt Radio. We are only three followers away from
hitting thirty thousand. Three of you. That's all we need.
So three of you do something and then we'll hit
thirty thousand. And it makes Eric really happy. I don't
know why, but you know, everybody has to live for something. Now.
(00:42):
Michael Munks, who is KFI News. He covered today the
installation of the new chief executive of the disastrous, failing
Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The woman who ran the
place is out. She's resigned under a lot of pressure,
(01:04):
and the new person is named Jita git O'Neil. Gita O'Neill,
who has been an assistant LA City Attorney. Well, so,
there was a whole committee of clowns that voted today.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
I gotta tell you, the way you're characterizing the organization
is is not how I heard it describe itself earlier
this morning when I was at this board meeting. You know,
the LA Homeless Services Authority LASA. They have a board
that is governed by appointees from the city and the county.
This board meets today and it was incidentally the last
day for outgoing CEO of Alicia Adams Kellum and the
(01:43):
approved first day for the woman you just mentioned, Git O'Neil,
whill be coming from City Hall to take over this
on a twelve month interim basis. Just to get the
main headline out, I know that you've been critical of
Alicia Adams Kellum's salary of two one hundred and thirty
thousand dollars to lead this organization. O'Neil is on a
(02:03):
monthly basis nearly thirty one thousand dollars per month, so
she will make less than Callum, but her salary will
be about three hundred and seventy dollars.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Three hundred and seventy and Adams Callum made thirty four
to thirty. It's not that much of a savings there
not that much of a savings.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
In fact, as Velicia Adams Kellum, who attended this meeting
as her final meeting, gave her final remark, she was
basically saying that LASA is a better organization now than
before she arrived.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
We addressed audit findings directly, We strengthened our rehousing efforts
and took on tough shoos with courage and clarity. In
doing so, we've helped LASSA become more agile, more transparent,
what does that mean? And responsive? Real lasting change takes time,
(02:56):
especially when confronting issues that have persisted for decades.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Okay, but I'm incredibly dear.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Hows of what we've accomplished at LASA and for the
momentum the agency continues to build.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
The reason I wanted you to hear that in its
entire Dame, Oh, I'm just glad it is because she
mentioned some things that we've talked about a lot on
the audits that have found the misappropriation or the misaccounting
of about two billion dollars.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Have they ever found an accounting for the two billion dollars? Yet?
Speaker 2 (03:29):
There's no good documentation for a lot of money that
went through LASA to those subcontracting homeless organizations.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
Do you know what kind of what an enormous number?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
That is two billions a huge And it's not a
number that we made up in the press. It's not
a number that an investigative reporter dug up. This was
an audit ordered by federal judge right and a separate
audit ordered by the county and the city.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
They found similar problems. And she's never explained where the
money went, if it did any good, right, and she
I mean, they never found it, So what she said
there was never never said, I'm sorry, I lost track
of all this. She says.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
We addressed it head on, and I tell you this
is why I told you before we went on air.
This was such a strange meeting to observe because the
way loss that talks about itself, including the board members,
which includes La Mayor Karen Bass, it's completely different than
I think the actual conversation that's taking place outside.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'm trying to imagine, you know, if there was like
like I don't know, when there's like two hundred dollars
missing in our checking account, my wife wants an all
day investigation, yeah, to know, like, well, who took it?
Out of the account and what did you spend it on? Right,
That's how she deals with the kids. And I'm thinking
two billion dollars and it seems no one is interested. No,
(04:49):
the judge is certainly interested. No, the judge is no.
Here's what came up. Because you're gonna hear I call
this cobalt kibble. As I was listening to this meeting,
I knew that there were sound bites that I needed
to cut just.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
For you to listen to. But I know that your
audience will enjoy as well. Mayer Bass is on this board.
Keep in mind they have a close relationship. She and
Felicia Adams Kellum. She credits Adams Kellum as the architect
of the Inside Safe program. And what the mayor said
today was that basically the expectations for Kellum were too high.
Speaker 4 (05:20):
You were expected to have a magic wand you were
expected to solve a problem that has been around for
four decades that I certainly recall, and you didn't do that.
You didn't do that in a couple of years, and
so the attacks began.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So she was attacked unfairly. Basically, this problem has not
been around at this level for four decades. That's a
load of crap, and what the mayor going on twenty
seventeen it got exactly. I don't think we discussed homelessness
at all t twenty seventeen, and then we did a
couple of on site shows. It was that year. That
was after a few years of Garcetti and his incompetence
(05:58):
in mismanagement.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
We talked just I think last week when the new
homeless numbers came out last Monday, that yeah, there were
fifty eight thousand documented homeless people in La County and
that exploded in twenty twenty three all the way to
seventy five thousand, and it's now starting to trickle down
a little bit. That's how they're able to say our
policies are working gets.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Because they're dying. It matches the number of people who
die every year on the street.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Mayor Bass says that what really hurt adams Kellum was
an ideological battle about how homelessness should be addressed.
Speaker 4 (06:30):
I think that it was unfortunate because I think one
of the underlying issues that you had to face that
you got caught up in is there's an ideological battle
about how to solve homelessness. There is a status quo
that has been going about homelessness for a number of years,
and you came in and you started to disrupt the system,
(06:50):
and there were a lot of people that were not
happy about that disruption.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
What is she talking about?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Disruption is one of those buzzwords that are often used
in like startups and entrepreneurs, and our product is disrupting
the industry. It doesn't really mean anything.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Usually smart issues. Then you said it.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
But speaking of that, speaking of that, because I got
these two, I got two more from Mayerbass talking about
Flicia Adams Kellum.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She says that Kellum was mischaracterized.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
And I feel that you were targeted and charged with
all sorts of things that later came out to be
absolutely untrue. But once that genie is out of the bottle,
nobody goes and puts it back, and it harmed your reputation.
And unfortunately, that is what happens to leaders a lot
(07:38):
of times when they choose to be disruptive of a system.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So I think what she means there, go ahead, Well,
there's the feelings of the organization that are pretty well documented. Yeah,
homelessness has gone up primarily over the past five or
six years. Yeah, starting to drop a little bit. Based
on the numbers from thisization, they significantly high tye seconds
we higher. But there was also that instance of a
(08:04):
two million dollar contract awarded to an agency operated by
Licia Adams Kellum's husband. And whether she had a knee
involvement in signing off on that.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Well, because she denied that she signed off on it
until they found her signature on the contracts.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yes, And so I think that is what the mayor
must have been talking about there. And now to get
to us guys in the media, this is what the
mayor says, You have press that have.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
No interest in reporting accurately and talking about what is
actually going on. And so those press that maligned you
unfortunately inappropriately, are not going to do a headline correcting
what was wrong.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So that was basically the theme of this board, meaning,
as they said, goodbye, an organization, some weird cult that
has lost that has not properly accounted for us the
way to phrase it, not properly accounted for billions, uh huh,
that has barely scratched the surface on eliminating street homelessness
in Los Angeles in Los Angeles County. Yeah, and an
organization that has now lost its co governance. The county
(09:05):
Board of Supervisors has left the organization and taken hundreds
of millions of dollars with it.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Why did the county pull out entirely and all their money?
If Adams Callum was doing such a bang up job.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
That's what shocked me about this meeting today is that
there was no apology. There was no there was no
recognition of any of the shortcomings. That was we are
doing a good job. We're just not getting credit for it.
That's insanity. And the mayor so there really is like
some weird cult. The mayor basically said to Adam's Callum, like,
(09:37):
this has been a hard job for you. You've taken
a lot of hits and it's going to be hard
for you in the future because you were brave enough
to take this role.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
And now your reputation has probably been harmed. Uh, yeah,
it should be shattered. She shouldn't get a job in
government for the rest of her life. She has to
explain where the two billion went. So is Karen Bass.
Since Karen Bass is acting like her a vouching for
her character and integrity, Bass has got explain this. It's
under her watch. She's part of the this this commission.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Here, the mayor says that she and Wendy Gruhle, who
used to be the city controller and ran for mayor
and is was until today the chair of this board.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
They switched that governance around. It wasn't ntil today the
chair of this loss of board.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Bass and Gruel actually went to war over Velish adams
Kellum because Bass wanted Velisha Adams Kellms to stay at
city Hall and Grule really wanted her to take over
the position at LASSA. And they talked about that today,
about how how talented she is and how coveted she
was at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Did anybody push back, No one, nobody. No, it was
unanimous praise, unanimous praise for somebody who oversaw two billion
dollars evaporating into thin air and nobody can explain it,
and nobody's even trying to. Nobody's looking for the money,
and the federal investigation continues. That's astounding. Yeah, the federal
(10:54):
investigation from judging the court, there's there's there's a lawsuit
that the court is overseeing and that I should I don't, No,
I don't want to see investigation. But the court is
certainly monitoring, right, I mean, it seems like there ought
to be a federal investigation. And remember, don't.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Forget that when Bill Saley took over his US attorney
he did start a little organization.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
He said, if there's any federal money involved in the organization,
we haven't.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Heard anything from now that you, but I'm sure he's
not resting on his laurels. All right, very good, You
got me off upset. I'm going to sage later at
the place if you want to come over here. You know,
I want to see you ver running around with your shage.
She's going to sage tonight too, I told her to.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
Yeah, it's a full moon.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yes, it's a new mode, a new moon.
Speaker 5 (11:35):
Oh, a new mood. Sorry, that's okay, okay, thank you
for clarifying.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Are you going to run around naked out in the fielding?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
There's some words of positivity and cleaning out the bad energy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You could use it in Brentwood. I got you know something,
if if Eric, if you start smudging and waving burning
stage in the air, that I'm done here. Not a chance.
That's I'm leaving the country.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
We just had Michael Monks on. He had covered a
press event today. I guess reporters weren't allowed to say anything.
This was the uh well, actually this was the loss
of commission voting seven to one to put in a
new temporary chief Executive of LASA, the LA Homeless Services Authority,
(12:30):
Jita O'Neil. This replaces the incredibly overwhelmingly and competent Valicia
Adams Kellen. And rather than go through a long winded indictment,
there's only one thing you need to know. Federal Judge
David Carter asked an accounting firm to do an audit
(12:54):
of where the money went, and they can't account for
two billion dollars. Two billion, Now, that is an astonishing
amount of money, really truly is. And it's just shrugged
off like, oh well, hey, Valicia Adams Kellum never took
(13:17):
any responsibility, never even said yeah, it disappeared, and I
was in charge, and I don't know where it is
and I don't know if it did any good but
my fault. I mean, how many employees had to watch
that money pass through their hands? How many employees now
it could be buried in Karen Bass's backyard. For all
(13:38):
we know, it could be buried in Valicia adams kellum backyard.
We don't know where it is. Nobody wrote down all
the checks, all the direct deposits. There aren't receipts for anything.
What the hell? That is absolutely, positively the most outrageous thing.
(14:03):
And then it then and then Bass starts complaining about
the media, that the media is throwing out phony stories
and tarnishing the reputation of Valici Adams Kellen. It is
the opposite. The media never pressed hard enough on where
the money went. We have been covering this story now
(14:24):
for eight years. It got really bad around twenty seventeen
when Garcetti was the mayor. He was the original destructive loser.
And twenty seventeen was an important year because that's when
it got so bad. They put up two propositions on
the ballot. One was a county proposition, one was a
city proposition. It was and hhh, and that was to
(14:46):
raise billions of dollars. And that those billions of dollars
have added up over the last eight years and nothing's
gotten better. And then the big whopper that Bass told,
the big whopper she spoke to Valisia Adams Callum directly
saying that you were asked to wave a magic wand
(15:07):
to solve a problem that's been going on for decades. No,
I have the numbers here. All you have to do.
There's something called la almanac dot com and it has
a list of the homeless population counts in Los Angeles
County done by LASA. This is their numbers for the
last twenty years. I don't think they even were counting
(15:32):
homeless people before two thousand and five. Let me take
you back to as recently as twenty eleven. Do you
know how many homeless people there were in the city
of Los Angeles about on the streets? On the streets
in the city, thirteen thousand, thirteen thousand. It's doubled since then.
(15:57):
It's about twenty six thousand. In the county. It was again,
this is twenty eleven. It was twenty eight thousand, it
is now forty seven thousand. These are street people. I'm
(16:20):
not going to get into the sheltered. That's a different category.
But I'm talking about the people that terrify us the most.
Forty seven thousand people in the county, twenty six thousand
in the city, and the numbers in twenty eleven or
twenty eight thousand in the county and thirteen thousand in
the city. So these are huge increases, big time increases.
(16:48):
And because if you believe they're numbers, it's down slightly
from twenty twenty four or twenty twenty three, it's still
oh much much higher than it used to be, much higher.
In fact, it's higher than it was in twenty nineteen.
(17:12):
In all categories. It's higher than it was just six
years ago. And I cannot stand. I cannot stand how
the media every headline, oh, just down, homelessness down, by
the way, Why would you trust an organization that lost
two billion dollars unaccounted for? Why would you trust them
(17:33):
when they do an a do account of homeless people?
Why would you assume that the number is accurate at
some point? Isn't LASA without any credibility at all about anything?
I mean, certainly the county supervisors thought so, because they
pulled out in the organization. Karen Pass is the last
defender of a hopelessly corrupt, hopelessly incompetent, overwhelmed agency run
(18:00):
by an absolute loser of a woman, Valicia Adams Kellum,
who had the nerve to give two million dollars to
her husband's nonprofit, and then deny she did it until
a news organization found the contract with her signature on it,
and then she still denied that she did it, claiming, well,
I must have not been looking when I signed that.
I guess somebody pushed that in front of me. It's like,
(18:21):
get out. Now, here's a plane ticket, a bus ticket.
Let's put her on SpaceX and shoot her out of
orbit out. I'm honest to god, somebody, somebody on the
news tonight. Somebody just go back, go back fifteen years,
(18:42):
go look at the number twenty eleven county city sheltered, unsheltered.
You look at those numbers, and you tell me how
Valicia Adams, Kellen Kellum, and Karen Bass can claim credit
for anything. And the lead story ought to be still
after misappropriating, lose track of wasting, stealing, you choose two
(19:05):
billion dollars. Now, LASA has a new executives stand cannot
stand the way the media covers things. With a few exceptions,
but for the most part, it is atrocious here, absolutely
atrocious that that's our money being stolen. They're not helping anybody.
He's just got all these people dying in the streets,
(19:26):
and yes, almost all of them are drug addicts and
mental patients, which is a whole nother thing we're gonna
get to you later in the show, because Trumps issued
an executive order about all the drug addicts and the
mental patients and he wants them all off the street
in all cities and in all states. All right, when
we come back, as long as we're on the nonprofits,
we're gonna talk to Sue Pasco. She's with a news
(19:47):
organization called Circling the News out of the Palisades, And
we'll explain all the details when we come back. But
it's it's one hundred million dollars that was donated in
that for that fire aid concert. Money is supposed to
go to Alta, Dina and Palisades fire victims and homeowners.
Well where did the money go? Well, Sue Pasco's trying
to figure it out. We'll have her on next.
Speaker 6 (20:08):
You're listening to John Cobbel's on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Or on every day one until four o'clock, as you know,
and then every day after four o'clock you got a podcast.
John Cobelt Show on demand, so if you miss anything
during the program, you can catch up later on the podcast.
Everything is brought to you on the iHeartRadio app. Now,
one of the big stories that's been bubbling for a
(20:34):
little while is the money that was raised from the
Fire Aid concert. And the fire Aid concert was for
the victims of the Altaden and Palisades fire, and a
lot of people thought that the money was going to
go directly to the victims. Well, instead it went to
(20:56):
a large number of nonprofits. Now and the whole iHeart
chain promoted the broadcast of the concert. We promoted the
event just up front. We did not collect any of
the money or distribute any of the money. We were
just a venue for publicizing the concert, and that was
(21:17):
as far as our involvement goes. But now you have
a Congressman, Kevin Kylie up in Northern California, who's been
on our show many times, wants to know where the
funds went, how did they get distributed, who did it
go to. One of the journalists who've been on top
of this story has been Sue Pasco, one time a
(21:39):
journalist on the West Side out of the Palisades, and
she's got a website called circling the news, and we're
going to talk to Sue because she'll have more detail
than almost anybody as to what happened. Sue Pasco, are
you there.
Speaker 7 (21:54):
I am. Thank you for having me and helping to
spread the word about what I think is just a
traves state.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
How much money total was raised by the fire aid concerts.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Supposedly more than one hundred million, and we don't even
know if it's more than that, because one would assume
that they put it in an account someplace and it's
drying interest. But the Fire Aid Committee, I guess that's
the best way to put them, has doled out about
seventy five million so far, which means there's only about
twenty five million left. And the most interesting thing, this
(22:30):
was marketed for victims now survivors of the fire, and
it hasn't gone to gone to individuals. It's gone to nonprofits.
And I didn't realize that until a reader sent in
a query in may Or. I guess it was in April,
he said. The query in he said, how do I
apply for those fire aid funds? I thought, you know,
(22:51):
that's a really good question. So I reached out to
the Annenberg because they're the ones overseeing supposedly, who's getting
the Grantsburg data? Yes, and no one got back to me.
So I called, I emailed, and finally someone got back
to me and said, well, maybe who you should talk
(23:11):
to is our media spokesperson, Chris Wallace. So then I
spoke to Chris. But after basically, none of the money
is going to individuals, it's going to nonprofits. And they
told me I could see the nonprofits online, which I
went to the fire Aid website and started looking at
the nonprofits and so one of the first I saw
(23:34):
was Saint Joseph the People's Concern. I'm actually helped with
the Homeless task Force in the Palisades, So I thought,
why are these they're basically homeless task Force. Why is
money going to help the people on the transient basically?
And then I started looking at the other nonprofits that
(23:54):
were listed, like LA's Home for Native People Pathways LA,
which is based in downtown and works to make sure
that children are most vulnerable communities have access to high
quality and affordable childcare services, or Homegrown, whose mission is
to build a more inclusive childcare system that values and
supports home based childcare. I really didn't know how any
(24:17):
of this supported.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Fuire victims in the Palisades and Altadena, correct.
Speaker 7 (24:25):
But I thought, well, you know what, maybe this is
really helping the Altadena area. So I went back to
the Edinburgh Committee and I sort of said, can you
send me a list of the nonprofits that have been
helped in Pacific Palisades from this? And I got a
shortlist of about three that supposedly were helping fire victims
(24:50):
in the Palisades. But I started talking to people in
the Palisades and no one had actually seen individual support.
And the need is enormous because most people don't realize
insurance is not paying. There's a huge gap between one
insurance will pay to rebuild at what it costs, and
(25:12):
people don't have the money to rebuild. So any kind
of money like this would be very helpful.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, I mean yeah. There were a lot of heavy
hitters involved in this. The La Clippers owner Steve Balmer,
you had the Annenberg Foundation, which is an enormous foundation
here in LA and then you had the stars involved.
It was at the Kia Forum, the Intuit Dome, Billie Eilish,
Rod Stewart, Lady Gaga Sting, Stevie Wonder, Nirvana, Stevie Nicks
a huge success, one hundred million raised, and then all
(25:43):
the information about what happened went dead and people started saying, well,
where did the money go? And I didn't get the money,
and so it goes to these nonprofits. According to your research,
do the nonprofits explain where the money went after they
got funded? Do they have a list of homeowners residents
(26:05):
who got some kind of grant?
Speaker 7 (26:09):
You think? Would you? No, it's confidentiality. We can't tell
you the person that may have gotten the money. To me,
now this becomes a much I'm angry at the nonprofits
for taking the money, and some of them really are sketch.
I'm not going to say which ones I think are sketched,
but there are some that are really sketched, and some
that just got their nonprofit by going through other nonprofits
(26:31):
and don't even have their own nonprofit number and got money,
which is a whole other story. But who came up
with the system. I think whoever is on top needs
to be called out, and you would like to know
who's on top. But I've asked, and I've been told,
we're not going going to go into that, right now
now on top, because making the decision that nonprofit should
(26:56):
get the money.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Would that be somebody idea? Would it be somebody at
the Aninberg Foundation. I mean they must have a CEO.
Speaker 7 (27:04):
Well, it's supposed that the Annenberg is just a sort
of a see through pass through. Yeah, past here, that's
what it is. No, someone had to be responsible for
setting this up, for saying we need a committee to
decide on which nonprofits get it. And from what I
can tell, if you have a nonprofit and he would
(27:25):
set evacuation. They were throwing out money like a drunken
sailor and a port. I mean they were just going
crazy throwing the money out. So who came up with
this scheme? And why are they not being held accountable
for giving all this money to nonprofits? I almost don't
fault the nonprofits, is whoever came up with the system.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Congressman Kevin kylie I mentioned he's asking the Attorney General,
Pam Bondi, to investigate this. He said on X we've
learned that of the one hundred million raised, none actually
went to LA fire victims, went to nonprofits, many that
had nothing to do with fire relief. I've asked Attorney
(28:05):
General BONDI to open an investigation. I mean, since he
has gone public with this threat, does anybody come forward
and say, okay, okay, calm down, calm down, We're going
to explain here where the money went.
Speaker 7 (28:21):
No. No, oh, And you might like this because our
governor Newsom has I looked up how Volunteers, which is
actually a nonprofit out of the state governor's office, and
they got fire aid funds. And once that was reported,
Spencer Pratt actually did it on a little Instagram thing
about how Heal Volunteers, a California governor nonprofit got it.
(28:45):
It was taken off the website. So the question becomes,
did they take it off? Did they give the money back?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
This is going to require a lot of investigation. Are
the are other news outlets interested in this story?
Speaker 7 (29:04):
I will say that I have to give a huge
shout out to Marla Tellez on Fox because she had
me on and it sort of opened it up for
a lot of people to say, what's going on here?
She had the courage to put me on. Not a
lot of media sources were that interested in I reached
out to some, and I don't know why. They weren't
interested in where the money was going.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
All right, Well, if you find out more more details,
something concrete, you can come on with us.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
Okay, I would be happy to because the victims deserve
the money.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Yeah, that's what was promised. And you know, I am
in general highly suspicious of the entire nonprofit industry based
on a lot of news that we've been covered over
the last few years. Whether it's homelessness or climate change.
There are a lot of people who end up well,
(30:01):
they're parasites. And it wouldn't surprise me most of.
Speaker 7 (30:05):
The executives are getting six figure salaries. This is really
I found that really interesting.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Yeah, no, that's true. All right. Sus Pasco from Circlingthnews
dot com. Thank you for coming on with us.
Speaker 7 (30:17):
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
All right. More coming up John Cobelt Show caf I
Am six forty.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM six.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Forty John Cobelt Show, and the Moistline is going to
be played this afternoon at three o'clock. So you're too
late for today's Moistline. However, you can call in for
next week eight seven seven Moist eighty six. You can
call in now for next week eight seven seven Moist
eighty six or the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.
(30:51):
Right after two o'clock. In Debra's News, We're gonna have
Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal Analyst. You may have heard
Gallaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime friend. They led her out
of jail to talk to the Deputy Attorney General Todd
Blanche and the whole world is speculating, is she spilling
(31:13):
lots of dirty secrets on Epstein and Epstein's clients in
exchange for maybe getting her sentenced reduced or eliminated. They
can do that separately. The Supreme Court maybe hearing part
of Glene Maxwell's case because her lawyers claim the conviction
(31:34):
itself was invalid because the federal prosecutors had made a
non prosecution agreement with Epstein all the way back to
two thousand and seven when he was first charged and
jailed for his shedanigans. All the details we'll talk about
with the Royal Oaks coming up in just a few minutes.
(31:58):
Do you remember in Alaska a couple years ago there
was a single engine plane crashed shortly after takeoff in
the mountains. Yes, I remember that. Only the pilot was
on board and he died. His name's Eugene Peltola. He
was the husband of a former Congresswoman Mary Peltola. They
(32:21):
have released all the details on why the plane crashed.
It was overloaded with moose meat and it had antlers
that they that they connected to the right wing and
(32:42):
that provided too much drag on the plane. They attached
the antlers to the wing. The overweight airplane and the
added drag and lateral weight imbalance caused by the antlers
resulted in the plane having insufficient power. So I know
you're you're very worried about the plane crashes. Make sure
(33:05):
you know how much moose meats aboard. So okay, excuse me, sir,
I have a question for you. Did you weigh your
moose meat. Peltola had taken a group of hunters and
their equipment from to an airstrip and I one day
(33:25):
before the crash, they bagged a moose. So they murdered
a moose and they wanted Peltola to transport the meat
in his plane. They weren't on board the plane. It's like, hey,
could you take the meat back? Home. He did not
weigh the moose meat, and so the plane was carrying
(33:47):
one hundred and fifteen more pounds of cargo, then was
allowed on takeoff, also carrying antlers on the wing. This
is commonplace in Alaska, but it requires formal approval from
the FAA. They did not get that. I guess you
have to do some kind of measurement on that as well.
(34:08):
Oh my god, I have Okay, this is just well.
Plus you have to feel bad for the moose. Well,
he gets chopped up into slabs of me he brings
down a plane right, only you would find Hey, this
made the New York Times today. I mean, it's funny.
(34:30):
Oh it's funny. We got it. We got a dead man.
We have a dead moose. But you're laughing. You have
been corrupted. I have been corrupted yet. And now his wife,
the former congresswoman, is filing a lawsuit that he was
(34:52):
forced to fly too many hours with too little rest,
to fly under dangerous conditions and had to carry the
moose antwich on. Oh yes, at the headlines on the
headline playing in Alaska crash overloaded with moose meat and antlers. Okay,
(35:12):
when we come back, Royal Oaks, ABC News Legal analyst,
and he's going to explain. Uh, well, we'll ask him
about what today's rucus was about. Because Glene Maxwell met
with Todd Blanche. Is there anything that she could say
at this point that would reduce her sentence? And why
would anybody believe her? She's not exactly the most credible
(35:36):
woman in the world. Also, there's a case which is
headed to the Supreme Court regarding her conviction because the
prosecutors had agreed back in two thousand and seven with
Epstein that they would No. I guess nobody was supposed
to be prosecuted after seven I don't know. Well, that's
why Royal Oaks is coming out, because you're.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Not going to ask him about antlers and moose meat
though no, I thought that's what you were going to No,
because maybe you get a better reaction from him than me.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
We're going to talk with the Royal Oaks next. Deborah
Marquez News Live in the CAFI twenty four hour Newsroom. Hey,
you've been listening to The John Cobalt Show podcast. You
can always hear the show live on KFI AM six
forty from one to four pm every Monday through Friday
and of course, anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
The John Kobylt Show News
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John Kobylt
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